Most overhyped classic masterpiece?

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by sebastienbillard

I think Rimbaud and Baudelaire are over hyped, especially when you consider the lifestyle of this kind of people (not soo good exemples for the youth). More generally when you look at all the authors praised by the system and dig a little, it is very deceiving : many of them were racists, mysoginic, antisemits, alcoholic or drug users. The so called "Lumières" and their descendants were very dark sometimes. I regret some litteratures is not read in school (in France at least). What come to my mind are apophtegms of the fathers of the desert, buddhist scriptures, english poetry and litterature... There is a infinite world to read and always the same figures are mentionned...

Well this is a discussion on the literary merits of works, not on the moral merits of their authors. And frankly I would be shocked if religious texts were studied in class. I also have doubts on the literary merits of those texts, but since I haven't read them, I suppose I may be wrong.

[karinlib]

Well, Tale of Two Cities is known as his worst novel.

[crutnacker]

Originally Posted by Pablo

"Farewell to arms" by Hemingway (1929).
"The old man and the sea" (1952).
My boss recently recommended me "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1940) and when I told him that I didn't think much of the two books above, he said this one was worth reading.

I hated Farewell to Arms.

[crutnacker]

I liked Catcher in the Rye when I finally read it in college, but thought it was a devastating critique of the people that typically seem to embrace the book as speaking to them.

[Valloric]

Some people here have listed The Old Man and the Sea, which is my favorite book of all time.

Several have listed LOTR, which is my second favorite book of all time.

My, what interesting points of view people have in this place. I love MobileRead.

Anyway, IMO the most overhyped classic is Alice in Wonderland. I thoroughly despise that book and the people who force-feed it to children convinced it's a "children's book". It couldn't be farther from one.

So I cannot begin to tell you how much I hated having to look at that damn book every single god damn day while working on the early dev versions of Sigil since the epub version of Alice was the most advanced (layout-wise) epub I could find. Fortunately, zelda provided an astonishing Three Men in a Boat epub and that's been my main benchmark for a while now.

[happy_terd]

In my opinion the most overhyped classic (not saying it is a bad novel or even unimportant to classic literature to some degree... just overhyped is all) would be:

The catcher in the rye (1951, J. D. Salinger)

[Totenkopf]

Originally Posted by Slite

War and Peace ... tried to read the dang thing eleventy times I think, and after awhile I just throw my hands up in disgust and start to read something else.

I made it through on the second try, after deciding to skip the chapters devoted to historical theory. OK so I guess I cheated a bit...

I'm glad I did: Both War and Peace and Anna Karenina deserve their reputation for greatness. Tolstoy's characters seemed very real, lifelike almost: I knew people that were just like the characters that he created.

For some reason I've always contrasted Tolstoy with Dickens: Dicken's stories are very interesting, and fun, and much much more, but somehow they're not entirely believable. War and Peace and Anna Karenina were completely believable: there wasn't an iota of artifice.

Give it an eleventyfirst try.

[bigtymer]

If we are talking excruciating classics then my vote is for Homer's The Odyssey and The Iliad. With The Odyssey edging out The Iliad as something I could never read again.

[Acrimonious]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

In my opinion the most overhyped classic (not saying it is a bad novel or even unimportant to classic literature to some degree... just overhyped is all) would be:

The catcher in the rye (1951, J. D. Salinger)

I second this however my opinion is of that this book is one great big waste of time to read (much like what Holden did for the entirety of the book). I personally do not care what meaning, or how revolutionary this kind of writing was, you don't write like this for an entertaining, good piece of reading. If you want to engage your mind why not expand your knowledge of Mathematics or Science? Something useful, not read Catcher in the Rye and muse to yourself or with others about the meanings of the book. This is pointless, wasted time, at least when you are learning something functional you can apply it.

Perhaps my feelings are more directed to the discussion of "books with meaning" in general instead of just Catcher in the Rye but I won't go there, I think that may touch more than one nerve on a book reading forum

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bigtymer

If we are talking excruciating classics then my vote is for Homer's The Odyssey and The Iliad. With The Odyssey edging out The Iliad as something I could never read again.

Have you read it in the original Greek, or were you reading an English translation? If so, which one? You really need to read the Greek to fully appreciate it, but there are some excellent translations out there - the best ones are (IMHO) those by Richard Lattimore.

The Iliad and Odyssey are (together with the Bible), quite literally the "cornerstones" of western literature; they really cannot be "overhyped".

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The Iliad and Odyssey are (together with the Bible), quite literally the "cornerstones" of western literature; they really cannot be "overhyped".

I think you just have.

If they're "quite literally the 'cornerstones'" in the sense of being stones at the intersections of walls; I would beg to disagree.

If they're "quite literally the 'cornerstones'" in the sense of being works that the whole of Western literature rests upon; then I would beg to differ.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

I think you just have.

If they're "quite literally the 'cornerstones'" in the sense of being stones at the intersections of walls; I would beg to disagree.

If they're "quite literally the 'cornerstones'" in the sense of being works that the whole of Western literature rests upon; then I would beg to differ.

If you're saying that a knowledge of them is not fundamental to understanding the history of Western Literature and thought, then I would have to disagree.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Have you read it in the original Greek, or were you reading an English translation? If so, which one? You really need to read the Greek to fully appreciate it, but there are some excellent translations out there - the best ones are (IMHO) those by Richard Lattimore.

The Iliad and Odyssey are (together with the Bible), quite literally the "cornerstones" of western literature; they really cannot be "overhyped".

Yes, there are some translations out there that are very hard to read, and no translation can compete with the original text (IMO). The Iliad and the Odyssey are my favourite works of Greek lit. Book 24 of the Iliad is quite possibly my favourite piece of lit overall - it get me crying every time I read it.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course. I have seen many people name many books that I wasn't fond of as their favourites. (I was never crazy about Hemingway, for example, and I felf that Byatt's "Possession" was just O.K. Sometimes things are worth another try, however; perhaps I read Hemingway and Byatt at a time when for some reason or another (exams, a flu, etc.) I couldn't enjoy them as much as I would have at some other time. Perhaps another read would have me viewing them differently.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

If they're "quite literally the 'cornerstones'" in the sense of being works that the whole of Western literature rests upon; then I would beg to differ.

I beg to differ with you . Homer played a similar "moral" role in classical Athenian society that the Bible played (and perhaps still does in some places) in later societies, and western civilization very much has its roots in classical Athens. It can therefore certainly be argued that Homer has played a pivotal role in western society, and within question in western literature, even if most people today are not directly aware of it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

The Iliad and the Odyssey are my favourite works of Greek lit. Book 24 of the Iliad is quite possibly my favourite piece of lit overall - it get me crying every time I read it.

Agree with you completely. It's a pity that so few people these days are able to read these works in their original language.